Investment in Site Enablement to Accelerate Research Grows 300% – Florence Healthcare Releases State of Clinical Trial Technology Report
ATLANTA—-Florence Healthcare™, a clinical research technology company, has released its annual State of Clinical Trial Technology Report. Over four hundred clinical research sites, sponsors, and Contract Research Organizations (CROs) responded to the survey about how they plan to invest in software for their 2023 studies.
“enabling remote monitoring and document access for sponsors.”
“The survey responses make it clear that 2023 is the year of Site Enablement,” said Catherine Gregor, Chief Clinical Trial Officer for Florence Healthcare. “Sponsors and CROs understand now more than ever that they can’t speed up clinical trials unless they give sites technology that matches their workflows. Sites are crucial connection points for sponsors and patients, and they are demanding technologies that support them in that work rather than slow them down. ”
The survey highlights what technology sites plan to invest in during 2023, and shows an acceleration of trial Site Enablement relative to the decentralized clinical trial (DCT) technologies that were popular several years ago.
78% of sponsors plan to give their sites electronic Investigator Site File (eISF) software in 2023, up from just 22% in 2021. The survey showed similar rises in popularity for eConsent platforms (72%, up from 36%), eSource platforms (72%, up from 27%) and study start-up platforms (78%, up from 39%).
Meanwhile, research sites want sponsors to work with the software they already own and to take into account their preferences when giving them new software.
50% of sites said they owned an eISF they would like sponsors to connect to, while 28% use an eISF they received from their sponsor. Data capture platforms, like electronic Patient-Reported Outcome software (ePRO), were more likely to be owned by sponsors (67% sponsor-owned vs. 12% site-owned).
“It’s clear that trial sites are gaining power over research technology decisions,” said Ryan Jones, CEO of Florence Healthcare. “In 2023, sponsors and CROs will ask sites what platforms they have and what platforms they need to accelerate their trials. And when sponsors give sites technology, they’ll look for platforms designed for sites’ needs—those that cut back on administrative work and let sites focus on patients.”
In fact, research sites chose “automating repetitive tasks” as the number-one feature they looked for in technology, followed by “enabling remote monitoring and document access for sponsors.”
“Nearly one-quarter of clinical trials fail because of slow, broken processes,” said Jones. “Site Enablement Technology has the power to change that. If we can add automations and improve collaboration between sites and sponsors, we’ll see new, groundbreaking treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s, and rare diseases. And this year’s survey shows that sites and sponsors both crave that collaboration.”
The full State of Clinical Trial Site Enablement Technology Report contains more than a dozen insights and recommendations for 2023 from sites, sponsors, and CROs. Clinical research teams can now access it for free on Florence Healthcare’s website.
About Florence Healthcare
Florence Healthcare’s clinical trial software helps more than 12,000 research sites in 45 countries manage their documents, data, and workflows. The Florence Healthcare Site Enablement Platform™ also provides remote access so sponsors and Contract Research Organizations (CROs) can collaborate with their sites around the world. Florence Healthcare users now perform 5.8 million remote monitoring activities each month. To learn more, visit florencehc.com.
